


Children of the Hidden Kingdom

by everythingsadream



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-14 12:00:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28545222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everythingsadream/pseuds/everythingsadream
Summary: What if the Horde never found Catra and Adora? What if somebody else got to them first?Catra and Adora are two of the most promising young sorceresses in Mystacor, personally raised and trained by Castaspella herself. As the threat of the Horde grows, the two are shaping up for a fight they're not sure they'll win. But when a routine errand in the Whispering Woods leads to the discovery of a powerful sword, the tides begin to turn.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Comments: 15
Kudos: 97





	1. Prologue

Castaspella wasn't even sure what had drawn her to this part of the Whispering Woods. It was late, and the spell components she'd needed to gather were already safe in her basket. But the night was lovely, clear and cool, and Casta wasn't really all that tired. She walked just to walk, barely noticing that the air was growing darker, the woods denser around her. Soon she tasted smoke in the air, and she paused. Were those the outlines of towers she saw through the trees? She shuddered. Without even realizing it, she'd almost crossed into Horde territory.

Casta quickly turned to leave. As powerful as she knew she was, the idea of being caught out here alone with the Horde was still a terrifying one. How could she have been so careless? Oh, the lecture Micah would give her if he knew--

Casta bit back a startled scream as a strange wailing noise went up from somewhere in the bushes behind her. Logic told her to run -- what if that noise was an alarm of some kind? -- but something deeper told her to stay. The noise almost sounded like...crying. Casta hesitated, looking behind her. The wailing paused for a moment, then came back even louder. Whatever was making the sound clearly needed help. Steeling herself, Casta turned and headed toward the sound.

A splintery-looking wooden crate sat in a small clearing between the edge of the Woods and the Horde's camp. The word "APPLESAUCE" was stamped in large red letters on one side. As Casta drew closer, it became evident that the wailing was coming from this crate. An absurd image briefly popped into Casta's head of a screaming jar of applesauce, and she shook her head to rid herself of the thought. Glancing up quickly to ensure no Horde soldiers were coming, Casta darted forward and stared into the crate.

It was a baby. As far as Casta could tell, it was mostly human, but a thin, soft coating of golden-brown fur coated its skin, and Casta could see tiny, sharps fangs inside its screaming mouth. Large, dark-furred feline ears were pinned flat against the child's head as it cried, and a dark, bristling tail waved behind it.

"Oh, you poor thing," Casta gasped, pulling the child from the crate and swaddling it in her cape. The crying quieted to a soft whimpering, and large, slit-pupiled eyes blinked open and up at Casta -- the left golden-yellow, the right brilliant blue, and both reflecting the dim light of the night in a rather eerie way. Casta pulled her gaze away from the baby to search the clearing for any sign of the mother, but the clearing was empty, save for three Horde soldiers coming toward her.

_Three Horde soldiers?_

One of them, a large octopus-woman, started to yell out some kind of warning, but Casta fired off three stunning spells and ran before the woman could finish talking. It didn't last long, though. Casta could hear them crashing through the woods behind her, and her pace quickened. She had to lose these soldiers before they found Mystacor! 

Casta had the advantage. She knew this route much better than her pursuers, and her cape was out of the way, so she could move faster. Still, the soldiers behind her were more agile than she expected, and Casta's own pace slowed slightly as she tried to figure out a route she could take to keep the soldiers away from Mystacor without getting herself lost. There was still so much terrain she hadn't explored. With horror, she realized they were gaining on her. The baby in her arms was crying louder again. Maybe quieting the baby would throw them off her trail.

Drawing the correct symbol over the baby's head was hard to do while running, but eventually, Casta managed a shaky approximation of what the spell was supposed to look like. The baby's mouth still gaped in a wail, but now the actual sound itself was muted. For good measure, Casta also shot out another, more explosive rune behind her, toppling a small tree and hopefully somewhat blocking the path she was on.

Casta kept running, but the footsteps behind her died away. She heaved a sigh of relief as she finally approached the cliffs of Mystacor. Once she was safe on the mountain flying back up to her kingdom, she stared down at the child in her arms. "You're safe now," she panted.

Back in her room, Casta unwrapped her cape from around the child, who was now, mercifully, asleep. A crumpled piece of paper fluttered to the ground as the cape fell away, something that must've been hidden in the baby's clothes while she was in the crate. Casta knelt down and picked up the paper, surprised to see a short note scribbled onto it in sharp, only half-legible handwriting.

_I'm sorry for leaving her. Call her Catra._

~~~~~

It had been roughly six months since Catra came to Mystacor when Castaspella had a dream.

She was standing in a large room, with walls and a floor made of crystal that glowed with an odd, artificial light. Suddenly, a tall, blue-skinned woman blinked into existence before her. She spoke, and upon hearing her odd, monotone voice, Casta realized the woman was a hologram.

"Greetings, Castaspella, sorceress of Mystacor."

"Hello. Ah, sorry, who are you?" Casta asked, taking a step back. How did this woman know her?

"My name is Light Hope. There is something you must do," Casta wanted to ask more questions, but the woman continued speaking before she could even open her mouth. "There is a portal, in a field between here and the land that is now in the custody of the Horde. A child has been brought through that portal. I need you to find her, and bring her here." An image flashed between the two of them, of a swirling circle of crackling purple energy hovering over a wheat field. A baby's echoing cry rose from the image.

Casta's eyes widened. "Why?"

"This world is in grave peril. You are at the beginning of a great war, Castaspella, and this child has the power to decide the outcome." An urgency crept into Light Hope's tone, something that Casta wasn't aware holograms were capable of. "You _must_ find her."

"But...why here? Why me?" Casta's mind drifted to her sister-in-law, Queen Angella. As much as she hated to admit it, surely the leader of the Rebellion and a literal angelic being was better suited to raising Etheria's hero than she was.

"I have been watching the people of this planet for some time. There is another child in your care." The image changed to Catra, sleeping soundly in her crib. "My algorithm has predicted all of the most likely futures for Etheria, and in all of them, this child is... _of significance_ to the world's savior."

Once again, Casta tried to speak, and once again she was cut off. "You must hurry. The Horde cannot be allowed to find this child first. You have only a few hours."

Casta could feel herself waking up, but she still had so much she needed to know. She struggled before successfully managing to speak, and the question that came out wasn't the biggest one she had, but it felt the most important at the time. "This child -- does she have a name?"

Light Hope's face was fading, but her voice rang out clear as she answered. 

"Her name is Adora."


	2. The Sword (Part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our story begins.

"Hey, Adora."

A low purr of a voice cut through Adora's blissfully deep sleep. She was having a strange, but not altogether unpleasant dream. As the voice pulled her closer to consciousness, the dream fell away in snatches. Cool wind on her face. Grass beneath her feet. Pale light through the trees in front of her. She groaned and nestled deeper into her blanket, refusing to open her eyes.

"Adora..."

"Noooo," Adora moaned, slinging an arm over her face. A wide, glowing clearing. The glint of light off metal.

" _Adooooraaaaaaa_..."

The dream was over. With a long-suffering sigh, Adora started to pull herself up. Just as she'd sat up, though, a rush of magic sent her back down flat onto the bed. She yelped as her head hit the pillow, eyes popping open.

The first thing she registered in her line of vision was the blue-gold blur of her best friend's eyes as Catra appeared above her on the bed. Slowly, the rest of her face came into focus. Though the lower half was obscured by the silky mask she'd taken to wearing in the past few months, it was easy to tell she was grinning. She started to laugh as Adora glared up at her. The beautifully gravelly sound took any existent bite out of Adora's anger, and she smiled too.

"That was a heck of a Push spell, Catra," Adora teased. "Were you trying to wake me up or knock me back out?"

"It's your fault for taking forever to get up," Catra answered, completely undaunted. "But for real, are you okay? I know it was too forceful, I need to get that under control."

"No, no, I'm okay!" Adora assured her.

Catra slung an arm around her and knocked on her forehead. "Good. Guess your thick skull is good for something after all."

Adora snorted and shoved her away. "Whatever. Why'd you wake me up, anyway? We don't have class today." Her eyes darted briefly to the calendar hanging on her wall. "Wait. Do we have class today? What day is it?"

"We don't have class today," Catra confirmed with a roll of her eyes. "Casta wants us to go to Bright Moon. Well, okay, she wants _you_ to go to Bright Moon, but she doesn't want you to have to be alone. There's this war room meeting, something about fortifying the defenses at Thaymor...I dunno, you're the strategist." She flopped back on Adora's bed. "Anyway, get dressed. We'll miss breakfast."

"Leave without me, then, if you're so worried," Adora retorted, but Catra didn't move. She merely slung an arm over her eyes to give Adora privacy while she changed. Scoffing at her best friend's antics, Adora exchanged her pajamas for her favorite maroon tunic and white leggings, pulling the top half of her chin-length hair into a topknot. Once she was done, she tossed her discarded clothes at Catra. "You can look now, dork. Let's go eat." 

~~~~~

"Catra! Adora! Ugh, I'm so glad to see you guys!"

Glimmer teleported out to greet the two girls as they approached the Bright Moon palace, gathering them both in a hug. "My mom is being _so_ annoying. She grounded me again! Like, she blamed _me_ for how the siege on Elberon went, and then I got grounded for trying to defend myself! Can you believe that?"

Adora and Catra exchanged a look. "I can't believe that," Catra deadpanned.

"I really wanted to come to the meeting today, too. I have so many ideas, and there's this plan Bow and I have been working on, but I'm not allowed anymore. Technically, I'm not even supposed to be here. Mom told me to stay in my room," Glimmer continued, either oblivious to Catra's sarcasm or willfully ignoring it. Adora favored the latter. "But I saw you guys coming, so I had to get out here. Listen, come to my room after the meeting, okay? The more people we have for this plan, the better."

Adora opened her mouth to ask for more details about this plan, but before she called, a voice called from within the palace. "Adora? Catra? Was that you I heard?"

"Crap! My mom!" Glimmer hissed, eyes widening. She teleported away. Moments later, Queen Angella swept into view, smiling warmly down at Adora and Catra. They both bowed to her, and she dipped her head in response.

"Hello, girls," She greeted. "Good to see you. How have things been in Mystacor?"

"Pretty good, Your Majesty. We're almost done with our training now. The Rebellion's about to gain two full sorceresses!" Catra crowed. 

"Well, one and a half, depending on whether or not I actually pass our last test," Adora added more quietly, halfway joking. She was fine at the basic skills and _great_ at combat magic, but anything that required more focus or finesse -- illusions, shapeshifting, pretty much everything they were learning right now -- had always been more Catra's thing.

"I have every confidence you will. You're both very dedicated young women," Angella answered. Her voice took on a slight edge as she kept speaking. "And Castaspella has trained you well. How's she?"

"Oh, she's good. I think the Horde is starting to worry her, though," Adora answered. "I mean, obviously everyone's worried, but Casta's always seemed so..." She trailed off. "Removed" was the word that came to mind, but that felt kind of rude to say out loud. Casta cared about the Rebellion, Adora knew she did, but she'd never really talked about it like it would impact Mystacor at all until recently.

Adora must have had quite a troubled look on her face, because when she finally pulled herself out of her thoughts, Catra was staring at her with concern in her eyes. "Hey, you okay?"

Adora smiled faintly. "Yep. All good." She cleared her throat and turned back to Angella. "Anyway, how have things been here in Bright Moon?"

The queen's serene expression tensed. "Not the best, I'm afraid." She turned and started to walk. After exchanging a glance, Catra and Adora followed her. "We'll have to hurry to make the meeting on time. I'll explain more there," Angella told them, quickening her pace slightly.

Anxiety bubbled up in Adora's chest, but she tried to push it aside. It took a lot to worry the queen. She sped up a little in an attempt to match Angella's pace. All of a sudden, she was desperate to get to this meeting. If there was a way for her to help, she wanted to learn it as soon as possible.

~~~~~

Adora left the meeting frustrated. Learning the full extent of what had happened to Elberon had been disheartening to say the least, and what was even worse was that barely anything could be done to help other villages like it. Angella had a hunch that Thaymor would be the next town attacked, but it wasn't as if they had many troops that could move to defend it. Almost everybody was either stationed in other, equally vital towns, or left out of fighting shape after the Horde's string of recent attacks. And to make matters worse, there was almost nothing Adora could do to help. She was outranked by nearly everybody else at the meeting, so nobody really listened to her ideas about strategy. She offered to put herself on the front lines, but Angella refused. "You're not fully trained yet," she reasoned. Adora knew she was right, but she still hated it.

She was so deep in thought that when she caught Catra turning down a small side hallway so they could sneak off to Glimmer's room, it took her a moment to remember what they were doing. "Right. The plan," she murmured to herself as she followed Catra, prompting an amused look from her friend.

"You forgot? Honestly, anyone would think you were constantly walking around under an amnesia spell these days," Catra laughed, throwing an arm around Adora. Adora tripped, but recovered by putting an arm around Catra's waist in response. And somehow that was all it took. The war was far from Adora's mind, and she was just a kid again, off to go get into mischief with her best friends.

And mischief was clearly what Glimmer had in mind, going by the extra gleam in her already-glittery eyes when Catra and Adora entered her room. "Great! You're here!" Glimmer exclaimed. 

"We sure are," Catra confirmed with a flick of her tail. "Now, can you please explain what we're doing here?"

"Okay, so, you guys haven't been here in awhile, so you don't know what Bow's been doing. You know that little tracker pad he's always got with him?" Glimmer asked. Catra and Adora both nodded. "Well, before he was mostly just using it to keep an eye on our troops and the Horde and stuff, but he souped it up so now it can detect First Ones tech!"

Adora raised her eyebrows. "That's pretty impressive."

"Isn't it?" Glimmer agreed, a fond smile on her face. Adora heard Catra bite back a laugh. Glimmer had had a crush on Bow for _ever_ , and seemingly everybody had figured it out except for Glimmer and Bow themselves. "But anyway, he picked up a _massive_ signal last night in the Whispering Woods. He's got no idea what it is. He wanted to sneak out last night to find whatever it was, but I figured you guys would want to be there. So? Are you in?"

Adora hesitated. The meeting had gone on longer than expected -- the moons were already starting to rise in the empty night sky. Casta would be worried if they weren't back soon. Before she could open her mouth to voice her hesitations, though, Catra grinned, grabbing one of Adora's and one of Glimmer's hands. "'Course we're in."

"Wait," Adora blurted. Catra and Glimmer both turned to look at her, Glimmer looking inquisitive and Catra glaring at her in a way that said _this is such a cool mission, don't you dare wimp out on me_. But all Adora said next was, "Where's Bow?"

As if on cue, a golden arrow sailed through Glimmer's open window and buried itself in the wall. A small compartment in the arrow opened, and a note unfurled from it, written in Bow's loopy scrawl. "Ready When U Are!" The note read, with a little drawing of Bow's face underneath. Glimmer grinned and took Adora's other hand, and Adora's vision turned to a flash of pink as Glimmer teleported the three outside to meet Bow.

"Hey, guys!" The first thing Adora heard as her vision cleared and she got her bearings back was Bow's voice. The four of them were at the edge of the woods behind the palace, Glimmer's room still visible from where they were standing. Bow stood over all the rest with a dopey smile on his face and his golden bow in hand, glinting rosy and pale in the moonlight. "Good timing. I lost the signal for a little bit, but it's back now. Stronger, even! We oughta get moving." He put his bow away and grabbed his tracker pad, muttering to himself as he figured out which direction to go. Finally, he set off into the woods, barely even pausing to look back at the others. Glimmer immediately jogged after him, trying hard to match her much taller friend's pace. Adora could hardly remember ever seeing him so focused, and it hit her for the first time the magnitude of what they might find. A thrill of excitement shot through her as she took Catra's hand again and they four of them headed off into the woods.

~~~~~

They'd been walking for probably an hour or maybe two (Adora was terrible at judging time) when Bow's tracker pad shorted out. After a minute or so of walking in a circle and holding it above his head to try and "triangulate the signal", whatever that meant, he finally stopped and smacked it on the side, staring intently at the staticky screen. "C'mon, c'mon..." he murmured, promptly a mildly panicked look from Glimmer.

"Please tell me we're not lost," she said. Bow finally looked up and tried to rearrange his features into something more reassuring.

"No, don't worry. This thing is just acting up," He said. Something sparked in his dark eyes, and his tone rose in excitement. "Maybe the signal from the tech is overwhelming it! We must be close!"

"Okay, great, but we still don't know which direction this thing is in, do we? So we are lost," Catra cut in.

Bow must've said something to answer her, but whatever it was, Adora didn't hear it. A strong, silvery light was flooding through the trees off to the right of the group. The dream from that morning came flooding back to Adora with sudden ferocity. She'd seen this before.

Barely even thinking, Adora started walking toward the light. She was vaguely aware of her friends around her, but her focus was off them. All that mattered was the clearing she was walking into now.

It was empty of any plants except a short coating of blue-green grass, and a spiral of brownish-black vines in the exact center. The glow, as far as Adora could tell, was coming from the center of these vines. Her friends all hung back, but Adora kept moving forward, narrowing her eyes against the light. Suddenly it dimmed, and the source of it became clear.

It was a sword. A beautiful sword, with a silvery-blue blade and a golden hilt that curved up like wings away from the grip. A brilliant turquoise gem sat in the center of the hilt, its gentle oval shape reminding Adora vaguely of the Moonstone back in Bright Moon. The vines growing around it seemed to indicate that it had been there for quite a long time, but the metal still gleamed and the blade still looked as sharp as if it had just been set there. Adora could even make out a faint design etched on the blade that reminded her of the writing at the First Ones ruins Casta had taken her and Catra to visit when they were kids. This had to be the tech Bow was looking for.

Normally, Adora was a very logical person. A piece of tech like this, one clearly holding powerful magic, had to be handled carefully. There was no telling what might damage it or set off any dangerous spells it might contain. Under normal circumstances, Adora never would have walked as close to it as she was walking now. She would've hung back and let Bow try to analyze it to see if it was safe, or tried to get Glimmer or Catra to hit it with a spell to set off any traps the sword might be carrying. But all traces of logic were erased from her brain by the strange, enchanting glow of the sword. If she hadn't proved that already, what she did next certainly did.

She reached out and pressed a finger to the gemstone at the sword's center.

The effect was immediate. Instantly, Adora's knees went weak and her hand fell. The last thing she was aware of was Catra's voice yelling for her as she was pulled out of the clearing.


End file.
